This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Rob Ford: 'Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine'

Rob Ford said he smoked crack about a year ago. “I don’t even remember. Probably in one of my drunken stupors.”

▶

Mayor Rob Ford has admitted using crack cocaine. He made the revelation to reporters at City Hall.(Toronto Star)

By Daniel DaleCity Hall Bureau Chief

Tues., Nov. 5, 2013

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has admitted that he used crack cocaine while in office.

“Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford told reporters outside his office. “But no, do I, am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago. I answered your question. You ask the question properly, I’ll answer it. Yes, I’ve made mistakes. All I can do now is apologize and move on.”

Ford, who will be making a further “announcement”this afternoon, said he did not know the exact circumstances of his crack use.

“I don’t even remember,” he said. “Some of the stuff that you guys have seen me, the state I’ve been in? It’s a problem.”

Ford’s bombshell concession may end his political career. He said in May that he does not smoke crack — using the present tense — but steadfastly refused to answer when asked repeatedly if he had ever smoked crack or done so while in office.

Article Continued Below

“I wasn’t lying. You didn’t ask the correct questions,” he said. “No, I’m not an addict and no I do not do drugs. I made mistakes in the past and all I can do is apologize but it is what it is. And I can’t change the past and I can apologize to my family, my friends, my colleagues and the people of this great city.”

In fact, Ford was asked repeatedly whether he has ever smoked crack. He dodged the question as recently as yesterday morning, saying simply that he is not an addict.

“You ask the question properly, I’ll answer it,” Ford said Tuesday. “Yes, I’ve made mistakes. All I can do now is apologize and move on.”

In a post-admission interview, Ford said he still plans to remain in office.

“I feel like I got 1,000 pounds off my back,” Ford told the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington. "I felt I had to say it. It is what is. I feel two inches high right now but I needed to deal with it. I am not going to quit or take a leave."

It is not yet clear, though, whether he will be able to “ride the storm out,” as he pledged Sunday. Nobody can force him out — Toronto’s council has no impeachment power, and the provincial government does not want to intervene — but he will not be able to function without the support of aides allies who are now reeling. Ford’s staff had no idea he planned to make the admission.

“I have no reason to resign,” Ford said on Thursday.

Cocaine possession is a criminal offence that can be punishable by prison time.

Ford’s admission came six months after he said at a news conference, “I do not use crack cocaine. Nor am I an addict of crack cocaine.” It came five days after police Chief Bill Blair confirmed that there is a video of Ford appearing to smoke crack, and after a judge released a police document showing that Ford had participated in clandestine package exchanges with an accused drug dealer.

And it came mere hours after his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, launched an unprecedented attack on the police chief, Bill Blair, whom he urged to take a leave of absence over “bias” against the mayor and whom he accused of attempting to “put a political bullet right between the mayor’s eyes.” Doug Ford, in fact, held a news conference attacking Blair about an hour before his brother emerged from a city hall elevator and made his comments.

The police will not comment on the mayor’s admission, a spokesperson said.

Councillors began to take action against Ford even before the admission. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the chair of the public works committee and a conservative ally, put forth a strongly-worded motion asking Ford to apologize for “misleading” council about the video and take a leave of absence.

“We as a Council believe the mayor’s conduct is unacceptable and must stop. He is hurting himself. He is hurting the City of Toronto,” Minnan-Wong said in the motion, which was seconded by another member of the executive, Councillor Peter Milczyn.

The scandal began in May, when two Star reporters and the editor of the U.S. website Gawker revealed that they had seen a clear video of Mayor Ford smoking what appeared to be crack from a glass pipe, calling Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau a “fag” and his high school football players “f------ minorities.”

Ford denied until this week that the video existed. “There’s no video,” he said on his radio show in May.

Have your say

Ford’s friend Alexander “Sandro” Lisi has been charged with extortion related to alleged “threats” made to recover the video. Ford said again Monday that he wants Blair to release the video.

“I want everyone in the city to see this tape,” he said. “I’d like to see this tape. I don’t even recall there being a tape or a video and I know that, so I want to see the state that I was in. I don’t know what else I can say.”

Ford’s comments have varied dramatically over the last three days. On Sunday, he “sincerely” apologized to residents, but only for past public drunkenness. On Monday, he went on the offensive, daring his allies to resign from key posts and saying he could run the city by himself.

In the manner of a schoolteacher, he asked temporarily befuddled reporters Tuesday to prompt his admission by re-asking the questions about his cocaine use that they asked in May.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com